Barrett was the winner of the first season of NXT. He made his debut on the main roster on the June 7 episode of Raw as the leader of The Nexus.[1] He as later removed from being the leader of Nexus after CM Punk gave him the opportunity to regain the leadership saying that if he won a three-way steel cage match to determine the number one contender for the WWE Championship but during the match Punk came down to ringside and took off Barrett's Nexus armband, which symbolically removed him from The Nexus, and he went on to lose the match.[2] After he joined a new group The Corre.

On the April 28 episode of Raw, Barrett competed in the 2015 King of the Ring tournament. In the tournament, he defeated Dolph Ziggler in the first round after Sheamus distracted Ziggler.[3] The next night on the WWE Network, Barrett defeated R-Truth in the semi-finals and defeated Neville in the finals win the tournament and become King of the Ring.[4]